The present invention relates to the production of a disposable absorbent incontinence diaper of the open type with a main part comprising a front region, a rear region and a crotch region, lying in between in the longitudinal direction and coming to lie between the legs of a user, the main part comprising an absorbent pad, and with rear side portions, joined to the rear region on both sides, and front side portions, joined to the front region on both sides. The disposable incontinence diaper is envisaged for adults and intended to be used only once.
Disposable incontinence diapers of this type are known, for example, from DE102005048868A1. DE102005048868A1 also already discloses a different design of the side portions, to be specific providing the rear side portions with greater stretchability than the front side portions.
In the case of disposable incontinence diapers of this type, the mentioned side portions are often formed from a different material than the main part. For example, the side portions, which are often also referred to as “ears” of the disposable incontinence diaper, may be formed such that they are breathable, in particular permeable to air and water vapor, whereas the main part, which is often also referred to as the chassis, may be made impermeable to liquid. For closing the disposable incontinence diaper on the user, the side portions, which are preferably undetachably joined onto the rear region, are folded forward, in particular to the stomach side of the user, and detachably connected there either to the outer side of the front region of the main part or to the outer side of the side portions of the front region in an overlapping configuration.
As DE102005048868A1 shows, both the main part and the side portions of disposable incontinence diapers of this type respectively have a rectangular shape. DE102004021353A1, too, discloses a disposable incontinence diaper of this type. DE102004021353A1 also teaches pre-folding of the side portions and securing the pre-folding before use by detachable fixing. On high-speed diaper machines, a pre-folding of the side portions preferably also takes place before the fixing of the side portions to the main part of the diaper, so side portions that are already pre-folded and pre-fixed in this configuration are preferably joined onto the main part of the diaper. Even though this incontinence diaper can also be produced at high speeds, and consequently very cost-effectively, and the pre-folded side portions can preferably be opened with one pull, the wearing comfort of the already known disposable incontinence diapers is found to be unsatisfactory.
To solve this problem, it has already been proposed by DE102007056126 (still unpublished) to form the side portions as running obliquely in relation to the longitudinal direction, or in a curve-shaped manner, at least on their edges facing the crotch region, in order to form leg opening regions, and to form the main part in an hourglass-shaped manner, at least in the crotch region, the oblique or curve-shaped profile of the side portions and the hourglass-shaped contouring of the main part being formed on both longitudinal sides of the disposable incontinence diaper by a respective single severing operation, taking in the side portions and the main part. According to this concept, the severing operation taking in the side portions and the main part therefore takes place at a point in time at which the front and rear side portions are already joined onto the main portion. This ensures that the leg opening contouring of the side portions continues as it were unvaryingly in the crotch region of the main part, in order to form the hourglass-shaped contouring of the main part there.
The technical challenges in terms of the process for producing incontinence articles of this type on high-speed diaper machines are significant, however, since it is only with difficulty that the incontinence articles with the far-extending side portions can be stably conveyed through the high-speed diaper machine, and the required precision of the severing operation producing the leg opening regions can only be ensured with difficulty.